Steve Reich in the Afternoon disappoints Radio 2 listeners

With his amusingly ceaseless banter and amazing “factoids”, Steve Reich has been wowing Radio 2 listeners since he made the jump from the good ship Radio One when lapels were wide enough to land a Harrier Jump Jet with Chris Moyles’s mum at the controls! But recently listeners have queried the moustachioed veteran DJ’s playlist. Out go the Beach boys. In comes phased looping. Out go great guests like Gryff Rhys Jones, Bill Oddie and a comedian you’ve never heard of who shares Steve’s top London agent. In comes Bruce Nauman, Kurtis Mantronik, Ken Ishii, and Coldcut. Top radio execs have inerpreted the strangeness as Steve "trying to avoid the Smashy and Nicey ending" that blights the careers of elelctro-minimalists and riders of the golden turntables alike.

“When Steve started to change, the BBC switchboard lit up like Graham Norton’s agent’s face, the night of Rossbrandgate” a Radio 2 insider told us. “Listeners rightly pointed out that ambient thought music was really better off played on Radio 3. Meanwhile, the Radio 3 duty-listener at the time was surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice on Private Passions entusiastically recalling how Simon Bates once hid some Arbroath Smokies in Terry Wogan’s console before he went on a round the world trip.”